Don't Wake Her
by Calamity Heart
Summary: His body froze and his eyes widened as he bumped into and rolled halfway on top of a soft warm form, and it struck Midoriya like a kick to the gut that he wasn't alone in his bed. (Rated M for implied sexual content; just to be safe, really.)
1. Don't Wake Her

Midoriya sat straight up in his dorm room bed at exactly 3:50 AM, just as he had every day for the past two and a half years.

Getting his body in order and his summer day started had become a clockwork routine for the young student, so finely-tuned and perfected through ceaseless repetition that it had become intrinsic and automatic, a thoughtless process. A minute to roll out of bed, five minutes to shower, two minutes to dress and stretch, and two minutes to sprint to the training yard as a warm-up for his morning exercises at 4 o'clock sharp.

He started with a yawn to open his lungs, stretching his arms as far forward as he comfortably could, then stretching them just a small bit further. The dull ache he invited into his scar-laced muscles helped to warm up his nerves, and served as a gentle reminder of all he'd been through and all he had to lose.

Now that his eyes were wide open, he turned to the nightstand beside his bed, reaching out for one of the two water bottles sitting just in arm's reach, and pausing for a beat as he wondered why there were _two_. He brushed the thought aside; it was likely that he was tired last night and forgot to replace the empty one. He couldn't remember. Midoriya grabbed the fuller bottle and threw his head back as he emptied it quickly, before exhaling a refreshed sigh.

After capping the empty bottle and putting it back down, the last thing he needed to do was to literally roll out of bed. Every routine has its own little quirks and rituals for luck, and for this, Midoriya's was to side roll out of the opposite side of the bed he woke up on, which started as a bad habit he used to have before his routine was fine-tuned and he would have to rush out of bed to start his training.

Midoriya laid down, brought his arms up to his chest, kept his feet together and relaxed, his legs straight, and rolled slowly to his right, using one line of energy to keep his-

"Ahah…"

His body froze and his eyes widened as he bumped into and rolled halfway on top of a soft warm form, and it struck Midoriya like a kick to the gut that he wasn't alone in his bed. His face was inches from a woman's, and for a moment, their warm breaths mingled in the small space between them. His shoulder brushed her left breast, and in that moment, it seemed like her chest would never stop rising. His toned thigh met her squishier one, and in that moment, the warmth seemed almost magnetizing.

"U…Uraraka-san…?!"

The moment passed, and with a quiet gasp, Midoriya rolled back and sat up, looking down at Uraraka's still-sleeping form beside him. She mumbled slightly in her sleep at the disturbance that Midoriya nearly rolling over her caused, but after a small adjustment where she was laying, she went right back to her peaceful, quiet snoring. Forced out of autopilot, Midoriya could only stare, a blush creeping into his cheeks. What the hell happened last night?

… …

" _Deku-kun… After everything that's happened since we started school, I… I just… I don't want to die before I tell you how I feel."_

The blush began working its way through his whole face as it all started coming back to him. He covered his mouth with one hand, staring straight ahead as the events of last night played through his head like a film strung on a reel of guilty pleasure. Every so often, he'd peek at Uraraka's calm, pretty face, before the butterflies in his stomach forced him to look away, embarrassed.

He sat in bed, lost in his thoughts, before his blushing face went pale as the film in his head came to a stop at a particular scene that he'd rather have forgotten, in which his unfamiliarity with sexual pleasure, his dizzying, peaking excitement, led to a brief instability in his inherited quirk, a momentary Full-Cowl, the likes of which neither he nor Uraraka were prepared for.

He must've been imagining that, right? There's no way that could've happened, no way he would've _allowed_ it to happen, right? He had a much stronger degree of control over his quirk than this time last year. Something like his first time having sex wouldn't cause that control to slip, would it?

These questions and many like it ran rapidly through Midoriya's head as he glanced over at Uraraka again. Leaning over and holding his breath, he pulled the covers slightly from her half-exposed form… and he found them. A small amount of bruising on Uraraka's hips, roughly in the shape of his grasping fingers.

 _Real_ shame burned his throat and boiled in his stomach, the same shame that Midoriya remembered ate away at him last night when they had to stop after Uraraka reeled when they both realized what had just happened.

…

" _It's okay, Deku-kun."_

He couldn't remember how many times he apologized. But he remembered how quickly she forgave him for hurting her, for ruining that experience, even though she claimed it wasn't ruined. He knew she was genuine, that she really felt the way she did, that she really understood it was an accident, and that she really didn't feel a single shred of anger or hard feelings toward him or what happened.

He wished it was that easy to put it behind him. But as quickly as Uraraka could forgive him, Midoriya could not forgive himself that easily. Shame and regret had taken root in his heart, but from it sprung a burning desire to train even harder, to control One For All well enough that something like this would _never_ happen again.

Midoriya looked over at Uraraka one more time. She'd twisted in her sleep and was turned more toward him now, still quietly, peacefully snoring. The young man slowly reached out, as if to lightly touch her face or shoulder, but fear and chagrin stayed his hand, and he turned away and simply got out of bed. He swallowed a lump in his throat, steeled his resolve, and at 3:53 in the morning, he left his dorm to go shower.

* * *

 **Hey there.**

 **I wanted my first foray into BNHA fanfiction to be something short, simple, and somewhat romantic. I personally don't think I'm too good at doing romance stuff, but stuff like this is a good way for me to practice.**

 **I was aiming for a thousand words, but this ended up being a little bit over. Ah, well. Hopefully, it's an easy-to-digest little read that gets the imagination going.**

 **Tell me what you think. I might do more little stuff like this.**


	2. Late

"You're not usually late, Midoriya-kun! Something happen?"

It was 4:05 in the morning, when Midoriya finally slowed to a halt after arriving at one of the campus's outdoor training yards, where Iida was already waiting for him. He put his hands on his knees, letting out a deep exhale before standing straight again, wiping his brow of the light sweat he'd worked up in his rush.

"No, no! No… Well, not really. It's nothing, really. I just had a slow start this morning. But I'm ready to get started."

Iida squinted. Ever since the Hosu incident with Stain during their first year, they both had gotten much better at being able to tell when something was off about each other, and they agreed that for both of their sakes, neither of them would let it go if something seemed to be bothering them. Iida put a firm hand on Midoriya's shoulder, and the light gesture seemed to rattle off some of the thin mask that the young man had put on to try to hide what he was really feeling inside. Shame and embarrassment, but not Midoriya's usual, natural brand of embarrassment. He couldn't meet Iida's eyes.

"…Why don't we start at 4:30 instead?" Iida suggested, tilting his head toward one of the nearby benches beside the track.

Even after sitting and being silently prodded by Iida's inquisitive spectacled stare, Midoriya seemed to have a tough time spitting it out.

"Iida-kun… I know you just want to help me out with whatever's bothering me, but… trust me, this is something I need to-"

"Midoriya-kun, I _promise_ you, I will kick you in the face if you tell me that this is something you need to handle on your own."

Midoriya's brows furrowed and his shoulders rose. He spared a glance at Iida, but the class rep's firm, open expression was unchanging. Midoriya opened his mouth, his own expression lightening a little, but his tongue tied itself back in its knot, and he looked away once again. "It's just that… it's _private_ , Iida-kun. Like, really, _really_ private. This really isn't business I should be putting out there to you. Not for _my_ sake, but for… the… o-other person it involves… y'know?"

Iida closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Is it Uraraka-kun?"

Midoriya didn't even _try_ to hide it. As soon as Uraraka's name was mentioned, his lips pursed, his face flushed red, and his entire body started to fold in on itself as if he wanted to become smaller in that moment, small enough to just vanish. If this wasn't so serious to Iida, he might've laughed. Even though no one said anything about it for their own adorably awkward sakes, by the end of their first semester, everyone sort of knew that Midoriya and Uraraka liked each other. Their lives were too busy and filled with too much peril for anyone to think about trying to mess with them over it, either. The last thing that anyone needed in a world of rising villainy was romantic distractions.

After their second year, though, things had quieted down a little bit, and in the summer following their second final exam, they finally felt as though they could breathe, have a little more time for themselves, to build their own lives as people instead of having to constantly be heroes.

Iida could tell, this was a 'people' problem, not a 'hero' problem. And for that, he relaxed his stare a small bit. But for his friends' sakes, both of them, he still couldn't quite let this go. If something happened between Midoriya and Uraraka, no matter how embarrassed and ashamed Midoriya was about it, Iida wasn't about to risk letting it cause a rift between them, if there was something he could do about it.

"Alright, Midoriya-kun, how about this!" Iida grunted as he stood up, smirking at Midoriya while pointing at the track. "Ten laps, no holds barred. If you win, I'll let it go and trust that you can handle whatever's troubling you. I won't butt in on your personal business. But if I win, you _have_ to tell me what's wrong. I have an idea of what it might be, but I can't really try to help at all unless I've heard it from you. Deal?"

Midoriya unfolded from his embarrassed little ball and looked up at Iida's smile. He understood completely why he couldn't let something like this go so easily, and as much as he felt as though this was something that he should take care by himself, seeing Iida, remembering that he was feeling the same way about something much more serious, moved something in him that told him that he really shouldn't bottle this up.

Midoriya stood. He was conflicted, and the race that Iida was suggesting was the perfect way to learn which side of his inner conflict was stronger.

"Deal."

* * *

At around the same time, the sound of Uraraka's phone ringing finally stirred her awake.

She came to her senses slowly, sitting up in bed with blank and vacant eyes, blinking and rubbing them to clear a little more of the fog of drowsiness hanging over her before she turned her head toward her ringtone.

Her pants were on the floor beside the bed, with her shirt and underwear tossed nearby as well. Somewhere in the back of Uraraka's waking mind, she was remembering where she was and what she'd been doing, but getting her phone was at the forefront of her thoughts. She slid herself out of bed… and then promptly collapsed to the floor as her legs refused to support her.

"Agh…!" Uraraka hissed through her teeth as she suddenly became painfully aware of a gripping, lingering soreness in her lower body, and her brows knitted together as the events of last night began coming back to her. She shook the thoughts away momentarily, stretching her arm out to grab her pants and quickly fish out her phone to answer it.

"Hello?"

" _Uraraka-chan. Where are you?"_

Her brows lifted. "Mina-chan? What's wrong, is everything alright?" The sound of her floormate's distressed voice forced Uraraka to fight through the soreness and unsteadiness she was feeling and drag herself to her feet, but in spite of herself, she still wasn't going anywhere, and was forced to take a seat on the bed to avoid falling again.

" _You tell me! I didn't hear you come back to your room last night! You didn't call or text to let me know where you were, and I went to knock on your door just in case I might've missed you, but you weren't in there! I've called three times now, and if you hadn't picked up this time, I was about to report you as missing! Where are you?"_

"Uhh…"

Uraraka understood completely. Since there were only two girls per floor, they'd all agreed last summer to a 'floor buddy' system where they'd look after each other and make sure they were safe and where they needed to be, in the interest of maximizing their own security. No villains had ever attacked Heights Alliance successfully, and the summer, so far, had been relatively quiet, but Class 1-A knew firsthand that they could never be too careful, and that they can and should go to whatever lengths they could to watch each other's backs.

But now, as Uraraka looked around at Midoriya's dorm room, at her clothes on the floor, and at her wobbly legs, she realized she was in an awkward predicament.

"I'm uhh… Don't worry, I'm still in the building! I, uh… um… just had a sleepover, is all!"

" _With… With who? One of the other girls would've let me know that you were with them, even if you forgot somehow. Whose room are you- Are you in a boy's room?"_

"D-Don't worry about it!" Uraraka insisted quickly, her palms getting sweatier by the moment. "Look, I'll explain when I get back upstairs to my room, I just gotta put my, uh… my _shoes_ back on, and I'll be right up!"

" _What floor are you on?"_

"…T-The second?"

The following few seconds of silence, Uraraka knew, was Mina wordlessly running through her head who was on that floor. And the long gasp that followed that silence, Uraraka suspected, was Mina figuring out just whose room she was in right now.

" _Noooooo…"_

"L-Look, Mina-chan, just don't worry! I'll be back up in my room in a minute!" Uraraka let out a flustered sigh as she once again tried to stand, hobbling goofily toward her discarded panties and trying not to melt with embarrassment.

" _About that… We should, um… probably meet in my room."_

Uraraka blinked, cradling her phone between her cheek and shoulder as she clumsily and shakily dressed herself. "What? Why?"

 _"Well, I was freaking out because you weren't answering your door when I knocked. I was afraid that maybe you might've been lying in there unconscious or hurt or something, and I didn't want to waste any time or anything when you could need my help, so um… Ehehe… I kinda melted your door off."_

* * *

 **Hey there.**

 **On a whim, I decided to keep this going, since someone asked, and since this has gotten a surprising amount of views and faves. Might add a few more chapters while I start working on a bigger BNHA project, so if you like this, let me know, and I might do a little bit more. :)**


	3. Turn The Dial

"Ready, Midoriya-kun?!"

It was 4:10, and dawn was just beginning to peek its whiskers over the horizon. The night was dying, and the stars had all fled, but the morning hadn't _quite_ started yet. It was in this twilight hour that Midoriya would usually be exercising right now, growing further into a body that could safely handle 25% of One For All's power, and going even further beyond. And after last night, Midoriya was fully prepared to push his body even harder. To train with greater purpose. To punish himself? To zero himself in on all he had to fight for, all the weight on his shoulders, and turn that weight into the strength to bear it.

He was still doing that, in some manner of speaking. He certainly _expected_ to be racing Iida on the track at least once today, maybe once at the start of their little daily regimen, and again at the end before they went their separate ways to _really_ get their mornings started. But it reoccurred to Midoriya as he looked over at one of his closest friends that this wasn't a regular race, it wasn't a regular morning, and he wasn't his regular self. Midoriya was about to see if he could outrun a confrontation with his problems.

"Yeah… I'm ready, Iida-kun." Midoriya nodded and looked straight ahead again with a squint.

"Remember, no need to hold back! On my mark. Ready… Set…" Iida bent slightly at the hips, and seeing this, Midoriya did the same.

' _A full standing start. He says not to hold back, but he has no intention of making a strong opening,'_ Midoriya thought quickly to himself. _'No reason for me to, either. I'll start low.'_

One For All was like a dial inside of Midoriya's body, and with a small amount of concentration, he began to turn that dial slowly.

 _5%._

"Go!"

At Iida's call, they both took off from their starting positions, and just as Midoriya suspected, Iida didn't come out swinging. But that wasn't to say that he wasn't trying. For the first half of their first lap, Iida didn't use his engines at all, but he was still a couple steps ahead of Midoriya, even at 5%.

It wasn't surprising. Midoriya knew that Iida was a natural-born runner. Even without using his engines, he's always been remarkably fast, and these years of training, honing his Quirk as well as his natural physical prowess, has only made him stronger.

Midoriya, on the other hand, was physically unremarkable in every way until he developed his body to be able to handle One For All. And even after sculpting his shrimpy form into a halfway-decent vessel, he was still no he-man, not even close. His 'base stats', at least when it came to raw speed, were simply lower than Iida's, which made the gains less meaningful compared to his. It didn't surprise Midoriya in the least that Iida, with no effort, could outpace 5% of One For All, and Iida finishing his first lap as Midoriya was coming around the second bend didn't bother him, either. Midoriya had already decided that he was going to wait until the second lap before he started turning the dial a little more.

 _6%... 7%... 8%..._

Iida's back grew steadily closer, and by the last bend of the second lap, they were squarely neck and neck. They ran side-by-side down the straightaway toward the start line, and right before they crossed it, the two of them locked eyes, and the dial kept turning.

… _10%._

Midoriya leaned into his stride, and beside him, he heard the rev of Iida's engines starting up. The warm-up was over. Now the race had truly begun, and Iida began to overtake Midoriya almost immediately.

' _Stay inside.'_ Midoriya reminded himself, drifting toward the inside bend of the first turn and keeping slightly ahead of Iida, if for nothing else but to keep Iida close. His tricks to get ahead didn't really do anything to _put_ him ahead, but the slow turning of his inner dial kept him close to Iida when the third lap ended.

 _12%... 14%... 15%!_

Now was the time to try. With a sharp exhale, Midoriya shifted the invisible presence of One For All within himself, slowly and carefully lessening the power in his upper body and moving that power to his lower body, seamlessly advancing from his regular Full-Cowl to Shoot Style.

Focusing One For All into any part of his body never failed to make Midoriya's bones hum like crystal glassware, resonating with the steady vibration that was his power. One wrong move, one little vibration that was stronger than what his glass body could handle, could crack him if he wasn't careful, and while he always had to be keenly aware of this, he was so used to moving in this volatile state – that was becoming less volatile every day he trained – that he wasn't worried at all, and often didn't have the time to be worried anyway when it came to situations when he had to seriously use it.

For the first time since their race began, and for the next whole lap, Midoriya pulled into the lead, the wind roaring in his ears as the sound of Iida's footsteps fell further behind him. His breath came in quick bursts and all the world that wasn't straight ahead of him blurred into a mess of color in his peripherals. Midway through the fifth lap, he squinted and spared a glance behind him. Not only was Iida close behind, he was steadily beginning to overtake Midoriya again. The sound of Iida's engines roaring joined the wind in Midoriya's ears. He still wasn't surprised. But at this point in the race, the halfway point, he couldn't let Iida pass him again.

 _16%... 18%... 20%..._

The more he turned his dial, the stronger the vibrations of his power rattled his legs, and the more he felt like he could break at any moment. But his determination kept Iida a half-step behind him, and at the speed they were going, Iida's more aggressive forward momentum was going to make it harder for him to turn the bends than Midoriya.

"Recipro _Drift!_ "

Or so he thought. Now Midoriya was surprised. Beside him, Iida crouched low and twisted his hips into his turn. He pumped more power into his engines, extending his outer leg and twisting that foot into his turn as well, while lifting the heel of his crouched leg and slowly turning the ball of that foot until his feet were parallel again. The result was a fast, smooth drifting turn around the first bend of the sixth lap without the loss of speed that Midoriya was expecting.

 _25%!_

Now he needed to push himself. Midoriya turned his dial all the way up to his safe upper limit for a burst of speed to keep pace despite his need to slow down when he came to his turns. At the speed he and Iida were moving, the sixth, seventh, and eighth lap flew by in seconds, and the end of their race was literally moments away.

But for Midoriya, each half-moment seemed to last for eternity. What Iida was doing to turn so quickly and smoothly could not have been easy. That he was putting this much effort into trying to win this race went to show Midoriya how much Iida really cared about what was bothering him, and that itching urge to just let it go and tell Iida what was going on began to tug at his heart again.

But as his foot crossed the starting line at the beginning of the final lap, that other side of him pushed back. The side of him that had to watch Uraraka hold back tears and smile as she lied and told him he didn't ruin such a big moment for them both, that neither of them could get back.

 _26%._

The side of him that felt, deep down, that no matter what anyone could've told him to make him feel better, or try to help him, or tell him otherwise, what happened was his fault and his fault alone. He was responsible for what happened, and the side of him that told him that he was responsible for fixing it was _suffocating._

 _27%. 28%._ _ **29%.**_

The desire to be stronger, to become the worthy vessel that the power of One For All deserved, that All Might could be proud of, was always there. Midoriya's light never stopped burning as brightly as it could. But alongside that steady flame, the smoke and smolders of that other burn rising inside of him pounded at his legs like an angry fist in time with his heartbeat. How could he be a worthy vessel, or even a worthy _man_ , when he could still lose control of his power like he did? What sort of hero hurts his loved ones? Why couldn't he have just pushed himself a _little_ bit harder every day, to have better control by this point? Why should anyone else have to be bothered and inconvenienced by his _own_ slacking?

 _ **31%.**_

The air was alive and intense as Midoriya and Iida rounded the final bend at the same time, the last straight shot to victory straight ahead of them. And they both had every intention of going all in.

"Recipro… _Burst!_ "

Iida saved his tried-and-true signature move until the very end, blasting forward like a blur, intense blue flames streaming from his engines.

"Boston…" Midoriya growled, bracing his body and redirecting a good amount of the power he had running through his lower body to his leading leg, and with a sharp exhale, kicked forward off the ground with incredible force, leading with his shoulder and full-body tackling the air as he rocketed toward the finish line. "… _SMASH!"_

By an inch, Midoriya shot past Iida and crossed the finish line first, but the moment he tried to put his foot back down on the ground to try to slow down, he knew something gave. It gave when he leaped, but he didn't really _feel_ it until he tried to touch down to the ground again. Midoriya yelped and crumpled to the ground, flipping and rolling all over himself until he finally slid to a halt in the grass, about fifty meters away from the track.

He hissed in sharply through his teeth, not even trying to sit up at first. Slowly but surely, Midoriya caught his breath, his heart stopped pounding in his ears, his nerves began to cool, until the only thing left was a sharp pain in his ankle.

"Midoriya-kun!" Iida called out as Midoriya managed to lift himself into a sitting position and look at his ankle. "Are you alright?! You didn't break anything, did you…?"

Midoriya shook his head. "Agh… No, I don't think so… It's just some little scratches and a sprain," he grunted, allowing Iida to help him to his feet. Standing on a sprained ankle was uncomfortable to say the least. It wasn't the worst thing he'd ever felt, but that didn't make it easy. "I'll just walk it off. Then we can get to training, alright?"

Iida gave his friend a serious frown, shaking his head. "Not when you're hurt, Midoriya-kun. I think we should take a break for today and get you back to the dorm to let that ankle rest. No arguing!"

Midoriya opened his mouth to argue, but just as quickly closed it again. Iida continued to fix the boy with a puzzled stare for a moment longer before slinging one of Midoriya's arms over his shoulder to keep him propped up and to let him hobble while keeping his sprained ankle elevated. Slowly, the two of them began to leave the track.

Iida was silent as they went, and Midoriya wondered for a moment why he seemed so pensive, until he remembered that he won, and as per their agreement, Iida wasn't going to say anything or ask about his problem involving Uraraka.

"…Iida-kun," Midoriya muttered, getting his friend's attention for a moment. "I… I promise, I'll tell you later. I just… feel like I need a little time, is all."

With a small nod and an understanding smile, Iida looked ahead again. "I got it. Take all the time you need, Midoriya-kun."

* * *

 **Hey there.**

 **Don't get used to this, I could never stick with a consistent every-other-day upload schedule. I just felt particularly inspired this morning, and by noon, I'd hit 2000 words and had to stop.**

 **Originally, this was going to feature another part with Uraraka's perspective again, but I don't like going over 2000 words a chapter; it's not really my style anymore. So, to make up for that, the next chapter will probably be dedicated solely to her.**

 **From the bottom of my heart, thank you for flooding my inbox with fave/follow alerts and reviews. They mean so much to me! As always, let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading. :)**


	4. Everything's Fine

It was 4:13, and the sun still hadn't decided whether it wanted to rise today or not. Uraraka didn't quite have that choice, however. After dressing herself and sloppily making Midoriya's sheets, she forced her fragile legs to carry her out of his room, hugging the wall so as not to risk falling and turning the lock inside the door as she closed it. Uraraka lingered for a moment just to stare at the space she was now closed off from, before turning toward the stairs at the end of the hall past Mineta's room, where Mina was waiting to help her back up to her room with a giant, nervous, and apologetic smile on her face.

"How bad is it, Mina-chan?" Uraraka groaned as she tread slowly toward her before allowing herself to relax as Mina put an arm around her and propped her up to start helping her up the stairwell. She had absolutely no confidence that she'd be able to get up the stairs herself, so after promising Mina that she wouldn't get mad about the door, she asked her floor buddy if she could come down to help her out.

"Well… It's bad enough that you're going to need a new door. Don't worry about it, though, if there's a fine, I'll cover it! I'm really sorry, though… If I'd known that you and Midoriya were-"

"Y-Yeah… Yeah, I get it," Uraraka muttered quickly as her face flushed, shaking her head. "I'm not mad at you, it's my fault. I, uh… wasn't really thinking too well last night. I should've told someone as soon as Deku-kun and I got back to the dorms, but… things kinda got a little crazy, you know?"

" _How_ crazy?"

She was expecting the question at _some_ point. As cheeky and nosy as Mina was, there was no way she wouldn't snap at the opportunity to try to get her to kiss and tell once she found out what happened. Of all her girlfriends, Mina and Toru teased her the most about her growing closeness with Midoriya and the awkward fondness for each other that they two clearly shared. Uraraka rolled her eyes with a smile and looked at Mina, opening her mouth to tease Mina about how it was none of her business, but she wasn't expecting the look of genuine worry and concern on Mina's face.

Uraraka's expression sobered as it occurred to her that as cheeky and nosy as Mina was, she was also incredibly intuitive. No one could read people quite like Mina, and the half-hidden pain on Uraraka's face, her limping gait and uncomfortable grimace were telling a not-so-happy story.

"Just…" Uraraka started before she realized she had no idea what to say. On one hand, what happened was probably _not_ something Midoriya would appreciate her telling others about. On the other hand, this also looked _really_ bad, and as far as Uraraka's health was involved, something like this could _not_ go unexplained to someone as sharp with this stuff as Mina. It didn't help that Uraraka was terrible at hiding her feelings when pressed.

"He didn't _hurt_ you, did he?" Mina pressed, stopping when they reached the fourth floor.

"No! Well… No. It's… No! It's not like that. Mina-chan, you understand that this isn't really something I should be talking about, right?"

"I mean… I'd understand if you looked like you had a good time last night, but you don't, and I'm worried about you." Mina put her hands on her hips. "I'm trying to solve for 'x' here, you know? You leave all bashful and happy to go to the movies with Midoriya, you come back, say nothing to anyone, and then I find you the next morning, in his room, _hurt_. Something just doesn't add up!"

"I know, I know…" Uraraka groaned. "But trust me, it's not something that you need to worry about, I'm fine. You know as well as everyone else that Deku-kun would never hurt me or anyone of us. What happened was just an accident."

She paused and blinked as she suddenly became aware of a sharp matchstick odor on the air, and hobbled herself out of the stairwell and into the main floor hallway, to be greeted by the sight of her dorm room door almost completely destroyed. The only part that was left on the frame was the top portion of the door that hung by a single hinge and swung freely. The bottom of this portion of the door was singed, broken, and brittle, and the entire rest of the door was a puddle of milky candy-colored fluid on the floor. 'Bad enough' indeed.

"Mina-chan!"

"I'm sorry!"

"What were you thinking?!"

"I wasn't, I was panicking!"

"Why couldn't you have just melted off the lock or something instead of destroying my whole door?!"

"Because I wasn't thinking!"

The dumbfounded shock on Uraraka's face and the teary-eyed shame on Mina's was almost enough to make them both forget what they'd been talking about earlier. But as promised, Uraraka let out a sigh, not getting mad. "I didn't think you were being totally serious when you said you melted my door off. I guess I really _don't_ have a choice but to room with you for a little bit. Did you call maintenance already?"

Mina took hold of Uraraka again to help her further down the hall, looking away as she shook her head. "I didn't have time to call maintenance, between trying to get you to pick up the phone, then coming down to get you like this. And I wasn't sure if I should really call maintenance on your behalf or anything, since it's your door and all…" she mumbled as she trailed off.

Uraraka fixed her floor buddy with a sour look before sighing. "Don't worry about it, I'll send maintenance a message once I can sit down. At least your room is cooler than mine; I should sleep over more often."

"I dunno, Uraraka-chan, two girls sleeping in the same room? Someone might get the wrong idea…"

"Shut up."

"Hehe!"

Mina's room had gotten snazzier since they first moved into the dorms. After their first year, she got a filter to cover her overhead lamp and give the entire room a slight pink glow, as well as a lava lamp designed to use her own acid as the 'lava', courtesy of Hatsume from the Support Department. For Christmas, every pair of floor buddies traded something from their own rooms to each other, so Uraraka smiled at the sight of her old rotating desk fan sitting on Mina's coffee table, still in use.

"I think I can make it to the bed." Uraraka carefully stepped away from Mina and took a deep breath as she toddled her way across Mina's fuzzy carpet, before exhaling deeply as she fell backwards onto her bed, able to give her legs another brief rest. As Mina joined her, Uraraka grabbed her phone from her pocket and started making a text request to dorm maintenance.

"You'll at least tell me how the date went, won't you?" Mina prodded. Even though she was concerned for Uraraka, the pinkette still could contain her boundless curiosity about what was apparently her and Midoriya's most successful date, up to a certain point.

"The date was fine…" Uraraka mumbled to start, but turned her head as Mina scoffed in disbelief.

"Dates that are just _fine_ don't end in a boy's bedroom, Uraraka-chan! Don't be so coy!"

Uraraka's phone buzzed with the automated confirmation that the maintenance team had received her ticket, and she put her phone down and sat up, letting out a sigh. "Remember when I said that things got a little crazy? Well, they kind of _started_ getting crazy at the movies, and the crazy in the air followed us back to the dorms. There was an attack at our movie theater."

Mina's dark eyes widened. "An _attack_? Shit, was it the League? They weren't after _you_ two, were they?"

Uraraka shook her head. "It was a decent-sized group of thugs, but I don't think they were with the League. …In fact, I'm sure they weren't. And I don't think they were after us in particular… We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Oh my god… Wait, I'm lost. Your date was crashed and you got caught up in an attack by villains, and you _still_ banged afterwards?"

"…I-It's a _long_ story, Mina-chan." Uraraka tried to deadpan, but couldn't hide her resurfacing blush.

"Well tell it to me, we've got time. Wait…" Mina peeked at her wall clock. 4:17. "Actually, it's almost shower time. All the girls will be downstairs, and they'll want to know, too. Wait till then, so you won't have to tell it twice."

"Really…? Sigh, alright, but just so we're clear, I'm only sharing what happened at the movies! What went on after that is classified information… no pressing me over that, got it?"

"As long as you promise me that everything that's going on with you and Midoriya is really alright, then I promise I won't hound you about it," Mina responded, crossing her arms.

Uraraka stared ahead at the wall for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Trust me, Mina-chan, everything's fine."

* * *

One water bottle and banana raided out of Mina's fridge later, Uraraka felt fit enough to walk without help, and after stopping in her room to pick up a clean set of clothes and toiletries, she and Mina began to make their way downstairs again.

It relieved Uraraka that going down stairs was easier than going up; even though her legs felt a lot better to stand on, she was still limping noticeably and felt less stable on her feet than normal. The soreness around her hips and inner thighs wasn't going away either, but she hoped a hot shower would do her body good, and while she wasn't looking forward to getting hounded by all five of her girlfriends over what happened at the movies, she figured that talking about it, at least up to a certain point, would help to put some of her racing thoughts at ease.

"Midoriya must've already been gone when you woke up, right? Not very gentlemanly like if you ask me, to hit and run," Mina teased, clouding Uraraka's face red again. She gave her pink-haired floor buddy a small push on the shoulder.

"C-Come on, it's not like that! Deku-kun always leaves really early to train. One night wouldn't have changed that." She looked at the floor as they passed the first floor sitting room, and Mina raised a brow, scanning Uraraka's thoughtful face.

"Hm… Well, what would you have said if he _had_ waited for you to wake up?"

Uraraka knew what Mina was doing, trying to subtly glean some more little tidbits about what happened between them last night. But in truth, that was exactly what Uraraka had just been thinking about, and she didn't have an answer. What could she say to him? Nothing that Uraraka said last night could budge the look of utter shame on his face, not her forgiveness or the assurance that she was alright. Although, while the former was genuine, the latter had clearly been a lie. The former could've just as easily been a lie as well in Midoriya's mind, she realized, and in the several seconds of silence between when Mina posed her musing what-if and when the two of them passed by the dorm building's front doors, Uraraka went from feeling bad to worse, and Mina's curious expression sobered a bit as well as she realized she probably shouldn't have asked.

It was at that moment, at around 4:21 in the morning, that Uraraka silently and determinedly resolved that she needed to find and talk to Midoriya as _soon_ as possible. It was in that same moment that the double doors swung themselves open and in entered Iida, supporting Midoriya as he hobbled inside on one foot.

Everyone stopped, and no one said a word. Iida and Mina blinked, looking at each other first, then at their respective close friend and confidant. Midoriya and Uraraka locked eyes, and the air became brittle.

"U… U-Uraraka-san…" Midoriya mumbled, his body going tense, his face flushing red, and his eyes turning away from her, filled with pain and ignominy.

Uraraka's moment was now. Blushing as hotly as he was, she opened her mouth to speak, to answer, to speak as truly and candidly as she did to him last night right as they got back to the dorms, to say… _something_. But she couldn't find words, and her tongue froze in her mouth.

* * *

 **Hey there.**

 **Real life kept this from being finished and going up a few days ago, so sorry about that. In general, I don't want to have to make readers wait more than a week for updates, but my update schedule is just kind of 'whenever' right now. I'll try to get better with uploads as time goes on.**

 **This chapter's pretty low-action compared to the race scene from last chapter, which I really had a lot of fun doing, but hopefully it meets expectations. I'm a little bit self-conscious about how I make some of these characters behave, so if there's anything at all you think I could do to improve in that regard, don't be afraid to let me know.**

 **Full disclosure as well, I have no idea how this story is going to end just yet. I have ideas for the near future, of course, but my motto has always sort of been 'just write; it'll work itself out', and so I don't outline things in advance or think too hard about the ending. It's about the journey, after all, and I feel like the journey could be much more organic if it's not written with a destination in mind.**

 **Surely, the story will end at some point. Dunno if it'll be sooner or later (hopefully later), but for now, enjoy the ride. :)**


	5. Shackles

' _She's visibly limping, favoring her right side. Face tense and unrelaxed, repressed grimace, signs of slight to moderate pain. Nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with Ashido-san for physical support, likely trouble standing and walking. Is she still bruised? Of course she's still bruised, why wouldn't she be? They're holding clothes and toiletries, about to shower. Ashido-san will see the bruises. Anyone else in the showers and dressing room at the time will see the bruises. They'll know she's hurt, they'll ask her about it. They know she and I were together last night. They'll deduce that I did it to her, that I hurt her. Ashido-san probably already suspects, that's why she didn't greet us immediately and looked right at Uraraka-san. They'll all know eventually. They won't look at me the same, won't trust me. They'll be hesitant to work with me, fearing I'll lose control and hurt them, too. And who's to say I won't? Fuck. Fuck._ _ **Fuck.**_ _'_

Midoriya's overanalytical mind could not stop racing, no matter how badly he wanted it to. Even after looking away from Uraraka and tried not to analyze all the ways she was clearly injured, his wild thoughts refused to quiet, a deafening, hateful roar in his skull amidst the yawning silence that stilled the air when they reentered the dorms. The more he let his thoughts scream at him, the worse he felt, and the stronger his self-loathing became. A single word from Uraraka might've immediately snapped the young hero's attention onto her and calmed him, but while it was crushing regret that had its hold on Midoriya, it was enfeebling hesitation that gripped Uraraka.

' _He was supposed to be training, still… I wasn't expecting to see him until later, when I had time to think! I should say something, I_ have _to say something! But I'm still a wreck, and he can see that! I couldn't get it through to him last night that I didn't blame him, and that I'd be alright, and in my state, I doubt it'd get through to him now, either. He'd just think I'm lying to try to make him feel better. But I have to say something! What do I say? Hi? Just hi, like everything's alright? That's stupid! There has to be something meaningful that I can say to him right now. Think, stupid, THINK!'_

But as hard as she ground the gears in her head, they refused to turn. Uraraka silently cursed her mind for not being as quick as her body when it came to making snap decisions on what to say under this kind of pressure. This wasn't a melee where she could just turn her brain off and counter a knife or swinging fist on instinct and muscle memory. But cursing herself is what gave her an epiphany.

' _My body… That's it!'_

Uraraka bit her lip and turned to face Midoriya, determined to fight through the soreness and discomfort she was feeling so she could close the distance between them.

' _Hug him!'_

He was four steps away from her, and when she took the first step, he noticed, looking up and letting his furrowed brows rise. At her second step, she was close enough that he could see her intent, the fragile smile on her face, her arms starting to stretch toward him. For a moment, the thorny shackles on Midoriya's heart loosened, his blush became less shameful, more bashful. He started to look a little more like his normal self, all aflutter at the idea of Uraraka showing him this kind of affection in front of their classmates.

Uraraka could not make the third step. She got a little too spirited with her stride too soon, and as soon as she put her foot down, her unstable foundations buckled, a nasty, needling pain wormed quickly up her legs, and her smile shattered into a full grimace. She crumpled and collapsed like a house of cards, flat onto her face in a painful, pathetic display.

' _This is what I did to her.'_

The shameful shackles had loosened briefly from Midoriya's heart, only to cruelly pull taut and crush him harder as he watched Uraraka collapse. But like her, his body tended to want to move first and force his mind to keep pace.

"Uraraka-chan!" "Uraraka-san!" "Uraraka-kun!"

All three of the others gasped at once as she collapsed, and Midoriya and Mina moved at the same time. Despite his sprained ankle, he took the pain and made that fourth step to meet her, crouching to try to help her up. But as he reached out to touch her, something in him refused. Fear and chagrin, the very same that kept him from touching her when he first woke up, returned to grip at his wrist, to coldly remind him that he wasn't worthy.

Uraraka sat up slightly, enough to look up at Midoriya's trembling hand, inches away from her and unable to move closer, and at his face, fearful, ashamed, and tearfully frustrated.

' _He's… scared to even touch me.'_ With this realization came the painful sting of tears in her eyes as well.

It was Mina that helped Uraraka to her feet, and Iida stepped forward to stand Midoriya up as well.

"Ocha-clumsy," Mina teased to try to lighten the air as she stuck her tongue out at Uraraka. She didn't react. "H-Hey, Midoriya, Iida…! We thought you were out training."

"Er… yes! That is, we were! But Midoriya-kun sprained his ankle, so I brought him back for him to rest for a little while."

"Ouch, bummer… Don't push yourself too hard, alright, Midoriya? I know you probably tell yourself that all the time, but still! None of us wanna see you smash yourself to bits anymore, y'know?"

"Y-Yeah…" he mumbled quietly.

Mina distracted herself with slowly picking up Uraraka's clean clothes and toiletries, and Iida made no move to get Midoriya moving again. Both he and Uraraka were right where they wanted to be. Something had been about to happen, and they were both stalling for their friends in order to let it happen, if it could. And it did.

Uraraka leaned into Midoriya, her cheek on his shoulder, and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing firmly in a close hug, suffused with emotion that she just couldn't put into words, silently hoping that her falling before she reached him didn't fuck it up in some way. But it did.

Seeing her fall made Midoriya's heart inaccessible. Though he didn't want to shut her out and desperately yearned to return her hug and share a close moment like they did last night and many times before, after witnessing firsthand what kind of damage and debilitation his Full-Cowl fuckup caused, his heart was just too scared to come out of hiding. In all his years of being a hero in training, Midoriya was absolutely determined that there was no pain that he couldn't tough out and endure so he could be there for the ones he loved and the ones he needed to protect. But he'd never felt pain like this. He'd met his match, and it was himself.

"Can we talk, Deku-kun? Like… after I shower and change clothes and stuff?" Uraraka murmured into his shoulder.

"…Yeah," he promised her just as quietly, and without moving to return her hug, he let her pull away and take a step back to Mina's side.

"Sorry to have stopped you on the way in! Take care of yourself, you two, alright?" Mina grinned at the two boys as she handed Uraraka her things, and Iida stood straight, holding his arm out to chop the air once in his usual gung-ho pose.

"Of course! You do the same!"

With that, Mina and Uraraka turned and continued across the main room toward the showers and Iida propped Midoriya up fully again to help him toward one of the couches in the sitting room. Their backs were to each other, so neither saw, but both Uraraka and Midoriya raised their arms to wipe the tears from their eyes at the same time.

* * *

 **Uh... Hey there.**

 **I know it's been only a little over 24 hours, but inspiration struck me again, dammit. And gaaaaaah, I'm so self-conscious about it.**

 **So, clearly this is supposed to be a dramatic little scene, but it's hard to measure if I turned up the drama in the right way or if it comes across well. Surely, you guys will tell me in a review, and like I mentioned at the beginning of the story, this entire thing is one big practice session so I get better at writing this kind of stuff, so I shouldn't really be as worried as I am. If I flubbed, I'll just learn from it and get better. But still, I'm always hoping my writing comes across well, whether it's an experiment in style and tone or not.**

 **I couldn't find a way to safely break the perspective back to either Midoriya or Uraraka without making it seem like a clumsy end after the drama settled down, so I didn't get to 2000 words this time, but eh. From here, I'll probably go back to shifting between Midoriya and Uraraka's perspectives and try to move the pace of the story a little bit faster. Emphasis on 'try', since I don't really know what I'm doing; I never do with this kind of stuff.**

 **Like I said in chapter 3, don't get used to snappy uploads like this. Daily and every-other-day updates will never be a consistent thing with me. I always just post when I'm done writing, then do a little bit of cleanup later when I read the posted chapter myself. Is that the best way to go about writing? Probably not. But at this point, it's my style, and I probably won't be able to change it.**

 **As always, I hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you thought. :)**


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